Innocence Project sues to clear executed Corsicana man

Arson debate back in courtWillingham execution case has been subject of forensic probe

ALLAN TURNER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
September 27, 2010

Cameron Todd Willingham will get another posthumous day in court next week as an Austin judge hears testimony that the Corsicana auto mechanic wrongfully was convicted of setting a house fire in which his three young children died.

Willingham, 36, was executed in February 2004 for the offense, consistently maintaining that he was innocent of the crime. Willingham's case has been the subject of an ongoing review by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

State District Judge Charlie Baird on Monday agreed to hear the arson case, which was filed by lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project on behalf of Willingham's relatives, on Oct. 6.

The lawsuit seeks to "restore the reputation" of Willingham and to ascertain whether grounds exist to charge Texas officials with the crime of official oppression.

Acting on an earlier Innocence Project complaint, the state forensic science panel has conducted a two-year review of the Christmas season 1991 fire. A subcommittee of the group plans to meet in Austin in mid-November to hear testimony from witnesses in the case.

At least three expert reviews have been critical of arson investigations conducted by state and Corsicana officials, who found the fire had been deliberately set.

Earlier this month, forensic commission members refused to approve a draft report written by commission Chairman John Bradley that held that arson investigators were not guilty of professional negligence or misconduct in the case.

Bradley and others on the commission have conceded that the investigators employed "flawed science" but argued that such standards were common in Texas at the time of the blaze.

Innocence Project officials contend that, as investigation standards improved, prosecutors and judges should have been apprised that the old investigative procedures no longer were deemed reliable.

More than 700 Texas inmates now are serving time for arson, some of whom also may have been convicted on testimony based on dubious investigations, they said.